Max is heading for the stair-rails "Hey, that looks like a good place to stick my head"!

The "Asian Sensation" breaks down the middle of the court and slam dunks the ball...the crowd is stunned

We had a really fun week, Bei and I went to the Aquarium at the Mall of America, spent a morning with Huck and his mom at the Science Museum, and had a play date with Lily and her mom at the beach. Another day, Huck and his little brother joined us for a morning of play, but unfortunately it was a short lived visit for Max. I heard Max say, "hey, I can fit my head in the railing"! Before I could say anything the realization came to Max that it wouldn't be so easy to get his ole noggin out! Uh oh! The first time that this happened in our house was 13 years ago with my nephew, Luke, my natural instinct was to run and get the butter and start putting it behind the kid's ears. Fortunately my brother in law is alot smarter than me and he showed me the larger space in the railing to get the poor little guy's head out. I used the same method to get Max unstuck. Now, I wonder why do only boys do this??? I have a gizzillion nieces and never once have any one of them put their heads in the railing. I'll have to keep my eye on Bei...

Bei is growing by leaps and bounds and just this week I've noticed his vocabulary growing. I'm going to re-shoot the jean picture that I took of Bei's pants and put them next to mine or Dan's to get a better perspective of how tiny they are. Plus, I'll measure the in-seam. I put them on him this week and they are up to his ankles.

I'm amazed not by how much Dan and I love Bei, but by how much he seems to love us and accept us. He really was meant to be our son in every way. It is the most natural fit and if I could have hand-crafted a child for Dan and I, it would be Bei to a T. Yet, I don't think I would have been able to think of all the wonderful ways in which Bei touches us. He is just the most perfect little person for us. I'm still utterly amazed at our blessing and feel God's hand in all of it.

My mom Sandy is out of the hospital and is recovering at my sisters Jeannine. Thank you again for all your prayers and please continue to pray for her health.

7.20.2008

We had a busy weekend. We decided to stay home and have Dan finish the landscaping work that needed to be done. Saturday my friend, Leah who is Chinese and living in Shanghai stopped by to meet Bei. She spoke to him in Mandarin, but unfortunately he wasn't talking back. He still seems to be talking in Chinese or I call it Flintstone talk, because he seems to say something that sounds like yabba dabba doo but I don't think he has even seen Fred in action.

Being a mom has definitely changed me; the other day I went to the park with Bei and I realized I had my clothes on inside out!!; It was only my top, but still very unlike the former me!! I quickly changed at the park and luckily didn't get arrested for indecent exposure. Then Saturday afternoon we went to visit some friends of ours that have an inground swimming pool. Anyway, after driving for about 15 minutes, Dan asked me if I just saw something fly off the car and what was it? I answered no and thought if it is not one of the tires or the steering wheel, there is no way I would be able to identify any object of the car, I'm car ignorant and want to stay that way. After visiting with our friends, we got home and Dan reached for the garage opener, but it wasn't there...Uh oh...light bulb moment, I CAN identify what flew off the car after all...Earlier in the day, Bei had gotten a hold of the garage door opener (don't ask how) and I tucked it in the windshield by the wipers...ooops! Dan told me it will be a cold winter without the garage door opener, but I know he won't his little guy freeze in the car because his mom does stupid things.Today we went to Church, Bei was a champ the entire time. Then we went to the Beach for a few hours. It is the best way to tire him out and he sleeps like a log after that. After seeing how Bei and I spend our days at the local beach, Dan says I live the life of luxury. I can't disagree, it is fun!!

7.15.2008

I'm doing a happy jig after hearing they found the cause of my mom's declining condition!

Bei loves being in control of the hose

Yep, Grandpa these are the pistons right here...

Yeah! More Cousins!

Bei called Doe Doe to wish her Happy Birthday!

She turned 2 on July 15th!

Today we received some good news from my mom's doctors; they have diagnosed her with a rare virus that they seldom check people for, it was called Supercalafragilisticexpeoldosis or something like that. Obviously, something that I didn't understand. Anyway, the good news is that they will be able to start treating the virus and they said that she should start to actually recover. Yeah!!! They are transferring her to the University of Chicago where there is a world reknown GI specialist. She was and will continue to be in good hands! So thank you for all the prayers! She isn't out of the woods yet, so if people could continue to remember her I would appreciate it.

It did my heart and soul good to spend time with my mom this weekend. I think when you become a parent, it gives you a new appreciation for your own parents and plus, I'm just a mama's girl. I really needed to see my mom. Anyway, we all went to the hospital together, and Bei enjoyed his time with Grandma Sandy. He probably thought this woman looks familiar, kind of like my maMA. Bei and Dan left after an hour and headed up to Northern Illinois to visit my brother Nick and meet some more adoring fans...I mean cousins. Dan said Bei loved the attention of the girls and he was exhausted when they came back to meet me. It was a quick trip, but Bei did really well and I was a happy camper because I was able to spend some time with my mom, yet see Dan and Bei at night.

My dad called me on Sunday to say that he would be in the cities on Monday to meet Bei! Yeah! Finally Bei met a fellow motorhead, he was real proud to show Grandpa Jim his Big Wheel with all the noises that it makes. He just didn't know that Grandpa Jim is the best noise maker in the world...he can make noises that sounds like a tank is coming through your living room wall. So Bei loved it when Grandpa mimic'ed the Big Wheel sounds perfectly.

7.10.2008

You thought I was kidding about ole Huck...lucky for us Huck lives next door. He is quite the character as you can see in the pictures. He adds alot of amusement to our home when he visits. He is a little mischievous in the best sense of the word. I'll answer the door and ask him, "Huckleberry, did you ask your mom if you can come over to play?" and he'll say real slowly "yes, but she said no." Right-o little buddy, then you need to turn your cute little self around and go home. Sometimes, he lies and says his mom said yes when she didn't and then I hear her yelling for him. By the way, you probably are wondering what wonderful event ole Huck went to that he is all dressed up (note the cuffed pant legs and barefeet), the answer is he went visiting his good little buddy Bei. He told me that he was dressing like a Manager today. Good for you, Managers are totally underrepresented in the dress up make believe world! As you can see in the pictures Bei doesn't know what to think of this funny kid who adores him. But he sure loves the attention and they play really well together. Huck is teaching Bei how to share and that he doesn't always gets what he wants. Huck doesn't mind pushing Bei's button's every now and then and I figure since Bei doesn't have siblings, it probably does him some good. We enjoy having him visit us and by the way, he really isn't Huckleberry Finn, but his name is Charlie. He is a great little kid.

On a different note, tomorrow we leave for Chicago to visit my mom. Her body is playing hardball with her and isn't healing as quickly as anybody would like (especially her!), so we decided a good dose of Bei might do her body and soul some good. So all your prayer people, please pray harder, we need Grandma Sandy feeling well, so Bei can hear her hearty laugh when he is doing his little performances that we find so cute.

7.07.2008

I just laugh because my entire attitude on parenting has changed, it really did look alot easier on the outside.Friday night after everyone had left the cabin, I gave Bei his bath. As I've mentioned before on the post, Dan usually is the bath person. I was kind of gloating to myself about how wise I was because I was killing two birds with one stone; Dan usually gives Bei his bath and then he has a little snack afterwards right before bed time. Well, instead, I thought I have Bei's undivided attention, why not feed him mashed potatoes while I have him in the tub and then I can skip the snack time. He gobbled up the mashed potatoes, an entire bowl!!! Unfortunately, this is what happened next; I'm watching Bei lay face down in the water, kicking his feet and a few bubbles appear and I was thinking how cute...oh, wait..."Bei, do you have to go poo....oh crap!!! " Yep, he pooped in the tub again and it was on my watch! What a mess! I guess I wasn't as clever as I thought, I better quit gloating!! Lesson learned; No mashed potatoes in the bathtub!

We had a a very nice surprise added to our 4th of July week. My sister Jeannine drove her two teenage kids up to our cabin from Chicago and they spent the week with us! She drove back that same day...she is nuts!! Anyway, what an eye opener to me...I'm ready to adopt two teenagers! I was able to take a shower undisturbed, put on my make-up without sharing my lipstick with Bei, I was able to cook and clean up without hindrance...yep, I'm ready to adopt an older child. It was fun to have the kids up for the week. We had beautiful weather so we boated, swam and enjoyed the outdoors. On Thursday, my sister from Wisconsin came with her two daughters. Lots of cousin time for Bei.